Faith Out of Fear

Hebrews 8:8-9

But God found fault with the people and said
     "The time is coming, declares the Lord, 

      when I will make a new covenant
     with the house of Israel 

       and with the house of Judah. 

It will not be like the covenant 

     I made with their forefathers 

when I took them by the hand 

       to lead them out of Egypt, 

     because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, 

       and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. (NIV)

“Did we not have confidence in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to the God of Reason. So, in one way or another, we discovered that faith had been involved all the time!

“We found, too, that we had been worshippers. What a state of mental goose-flesh that used to bring on! Had we not variously worshipped people, sentiment, things, money, and ourselves? And then, with a better motive, had we not worshipfully beheld the sunset, the sea, or a flower? Who of us had not loved something or somebody? How much did these feelings, these loves, these worships, have to do with pure reason? Little or nothing, we saw at last. Were not these things the tissue out of which our lives were constructed? Did not these feelings, after all, determine the course of our existence? It was impossible to say we had no capacity for faith, or love, or worship. In one form or another we had been living by faith and little else.

“Imagine life without faith!” (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 54)

Faithful.
Full of faith.
Full of confidence
in someone, something.
Can fear survive
absent faith? Wouldn’t the void
be filled with resignation,
apathy, lethargy,
not fear?
Fear demands a counterweight,
a worthy opposite,
not some wimpy
void.
Maybe having so much fear
benefits,
makes faith easier to find,
builds capacity for faith.

God, can you really use the fear?
Is that why I have so much? Wow. Awesome!

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE,
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.